South Korea’s Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction succeeded in winning an order for merchant ships.
Hanjin Heavy Industries announced on the 5th that it has succeeded in re-entering the market by signing a contract with a European trade shipping company to build four 5,500 TEU-class container ships worth a total of $270 million. It is the first order for merchant ships since Hanjin Heavy Industries’ M&A.
It has been six years that Hanjin Heavy Industries won the order for a general cargo ship, not a naval ship or a special purpose ship, since 2015. Since it signed a voluntary arrangement with creditors in 2016, it has been focusing on special ships such as naval ships, government ships, and probe ships. It was a choice to focus on businesses with strengths in a situation where there was not much work due to the slump in the shipbuilding industry.
As the global shipbuilding market has recently recovered and new orders for merchant ships have increased, Hanjin Heavy Industries has prepared to re-enter the market by developing the latest ships and eco-friendly technologies based on the judgment that it secured strong competitiveness in terms of technology, quality, delivery and productivity.
The ships ordered this time are also the latest 5,500 TEU eco-friendly container ships, which was designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy savings.
By winning shipbuilding orders this time, Hanjin Heavy Industries reconfirmed its global competitiveness in the mid-sized container ship market and also announced full-fledged normalization of its management at the same time. In particular, following winning orders for three eco-friendly hybrid national fishery management ships from the government after the M&A, Hanjin Heavy Industries achieved more than expected by winning orders for four container ships. As a result, it succeeded in reorganizing its shipbuilding business and proving the competitiveness of merchant ships.
Hanjin Heavy Industries is planning to expand its market share by focusing its sales power on orders for not only container ships but also small and medium-sized LNG carriers, LPG carriers, petrochemical product tankers, and Aframax crude oil carriers and to improve the future business portfolios.
Source: ANI